416 ANTHROPOLOGY. 



amined with care and interest; but the mystery remained, and its 

 solution seemed as difficult as at the beginning. These explorations 

 were continued for two years, at intervals snatched from business, and 

 during that time I examined many mounds of various sizes ; but, owing 

 to their great dimensions, and the extreme difficulty of opening them 

 with the limited means at my command, I was very little wiser than 

 when I began, except that I became familiar with their contents, and 

 Mas prepared by some experience and thought to grasp the secret when 

 opportunity threw it in my way. This opportunity occurred in No- 

 vember, 1879, while I was connected with the United States Fish Com- 

 mission, at Shaw's Point, mouth of Manatee Eiver. 



The shell heaps or mounds at this place extend along the shore 564 

 feet, and are from 15 to 20 feet in altitude at the highest points. The en- 

 croachment of the sea upon the northern front has cut away the slope 

 and left a perpendicular wall 15 feet high, presenting a perfect section 

 of the mound through its greater diameter, and affording a better view 

 of its internal structure than could possibly be obtained by anything 

 short of many months' labor and the expenditure of many hundreds of 

 dollars. Here the archaeologist may read the history of the shell heaps, 

 as the geologist reads the history of the earth, in the sections pre- 

 sented by bluffs or land-slides, and on that crumbling Avail is written 

 the prosy, practical fact that, far from being witnesses of industry and 

 of patient labor, they are the mighty monuments that want and hunger 

 have erected to appetite ! The shell heaps are simply the debris, the 

 fragments, of former feasts. 



In order to understand what is to follow, the reader is referred to 

 Plate I, where a rude sketch of a portion of the wall is presented. The 

 shaded points A A, represent the position of former flics; a, a, a, thin 

 strata of soil in which are scattered bones of the turtle, crabs' claws, spines 

 of the sea-urchin, &c.j and B B, the surface soil on the top and sides of 

 the mound. 



Referring now to Plate II, let us suppose a company of savages to en- 

 camp and build fires at A. They feast upon the shell-fish procured upon 

 the adjacent flats, throwing the shells around the encampment at some 

 distance from the fires. The fishermen bring shark, drum-fish, crabs, 

 &c, and the hunting parties bring deer, birds, &c, whose bones are 

 added to the ever-increasing circle around the camp, until in the course 

 of time the wall has grown in height and thickness so as to encroach 

 upon the central fires, and removal becomes necessary. The fires are 

 now removed to the top of the encircling heap, and occupy its periphery 

 at many points, as B, C, D, and E. The shells and fragments again 

 being thrown on all sides, but the center, A, receiving half the shells 

 from all the tires along the crest, it naturally grows to be the highest, 

 the dotted lines/,/,/ showing the outline of the mound at this stage. 

 The shells having again encroached upon the tires, another removal be- 

 comes necessary to higher points, and so the structures ascend, always 



